www.inkthinkerblog.com — Okay, boys, you’re excused from this one. Peruse the archives or something, because I need to have a serious chat with the ladies in the room.
Girls, what is up with the glamour shots on your professional websites? Do you really think that a blurred filter, eight pounds of costume jewelry, and a sequined v-neck evening gown is going to instill confidence in your potential clients? If you can’t find a picture that doesn’t make you look like an “accommodating woman” (my seventh-grade history book’s euphemism for prostitutes in the Old West), don’t put up a picture. Seriously. I’m not kidding on this one. You’re making us all look bad when you do this. I’m sure you think you look beautiful, and I’m not saying that you don’t, but you also look like a total amateur with with zero sense of professional boundaries.
Putting a picture on your website is a good idea. It lets the potential client connect with you, to see you as a real person who can solve whatever problem they have. Putting a picture of you looking like a hooker may also indicate to them that you can solve their problems, but it gives a whole new meaning to the term “hourly rate.”
Check out these examples of appropriate images on a writer’s website:
Anne Wayman
Shai Coggins
Tessa Wegert
Sally Bacchetta
Dana Loesch
You’ll notice that some are more casual than others, and that these writers’ areas of expertise differ. They’re using their photos to further a point, to strengthen the message they’re conveying with their site copy:
“I’m classy.”
“I’m dependable.”
“I’m funny.”
“I’m real.”
“I’m reliable.”
“I’m confident.”
“You can count on me.”
“This is how I’ll dress at our first meeting.”
“I won’t embarrass you.”
No one is saying, “I’m a ho.” They’re all making writers in general look good by being professional and appropriate. So stop screwing it up! Take that glamour shot off your site and be a grown-up already. You’re better than that. We all are.
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www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest
Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King
www.inkthinkerblog.com — My friend Anne Wayman from AboutFreelanceWriting.com has started a freelance writing blog carnival. Check it out, and submit your posts!
Kristen
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Talk is cheap. Good writing is priceless.
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
www.editingforeveryone.com
Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King
www.inkthinkerblog.com — Many thanks to Miss Snark, who linked to Brenda Coulter’s post about a site that’s stealing content from her blog, No rules. Just write., and from many others and posting it without attribution or compensation, evidently after the victimized bloggers have requested that they stop. Check it out…
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www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
Finalist in 2006 Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest
Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King
www.inkthinkerblog.com — I’m back and exhausted. “Back from where, Kristen?” Back from the least relaxing vacay ever. I need a vacay from my vacay. (Note to self: Stop saying “vacay.”) I spent four and a half days a beach house just a minute’s walk from the ocean in Dewey Beach, DE, where I was able to get some great interview sources for an assignment for Delaware Parent Magazine, but not much of a tan. Between the sand-blasting from the wind, and icy dampness from the rain, there wasn’t much beach time to be had. For one day, though, I enjoyed the sun in all my SPF-50 oiled glory. It would have been more enjoyable if I didn’t spend half the day on the phone trying to get stuff worked out for a school project (or half of the entire trip for that matter), but c’est la vie.
Now that I’m back, I’m trying to get ORGANIZED. Easier said than done. I owe the collective you several write-ups from the Washington Independent Writers conference last Saturday in DC. It was phenomenal as usual, and I had a great time meeting some DCPubs and WIW-L folk whom I’d been seeing around online for quite some time. I also had an amusing, albeit brief, exchange with Sara Nelson, EIC of Publishers Weekly. (Me and my amusing-albeit-brief exchanges…).
Once I finish that, or perhaps in the midst, I’ll be working on my long-overdue self-promotion series, which is desperately needed by the eighty-two bajillion people I’ve met lately who insist that self-promotion is impossible and costs a fortune. (Spoiler: It isn’t and it doesn’t.) And once I get THAT rolling, I’ll begin tacking the brilliant list of spectacular article ideas that occurred to me several weeks ago during class (once I find the list, that is. That’s part of the getting organized…)
My immediate goal is to locate my desk (I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere under all of the copies of the New Yorker that mysteriously appeared in my office while I was gone) without my head exploding. If it goes well, I’ll report back with the first of the conference write-ups in a few days.
__________________________________________
Talk is cheap. Good writing is priceless.
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
www.editingforeveryone.com
Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King
www.inkthinkerblog.com — I’m so glad Miss Snark shared the link to this glaring error on the cover of an NYT bestseller.
Two words, fellow editors: Job. Security.
__________________________________________
Talk is cheap. Good writing is priceless.
www.kristenkingfreelancing.com
www.editingforeveryone.com
Contents Copyright © 2006-2014 Kristen King
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